{"id":14142,"date":"2019-06-28T16:29:51","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T16:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/news\/?p=14142"},"modified":"2019-08-02T16:31:54","modified_gmt":"2019-08-02T16:31:54","slug":"annual-conference-2019-bits-and-pieces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2019\/annual-conference-2019-bits-and-pieces\/","title":{"rendered":"Annual Conference 2019: Bits and pieces"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"2019<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The 2019 Annual Conference of the Church of the Brethren takes place next week July 3-7 in Greensboro, N.C. Presiding will be moderator Donita Keister, moderator-elect Paul Mundey, and Conference secretary James Beckwith. Keister preaches for opening worship Wednesday evening. Pre-Conference meetings include the Ministers\u2019 Association annual continuing education event and the Standing Committee meetings of district delegates, among others.\u00a0
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For details go to\u00a0www.brethren.org\/ac<\/a>\u00a0.\u00a0
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This year\u2019s onsite news index page will be live as of July 1 at\u00a0www.brethren.org\/ac\/2019\/coverage<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

—\u00a0The three days of business sessions<\/strong>\u00a0Thursday through Saturday<\/strong>\u00a0will have a special focus on compelling vision conversations and will include a new morning worship service this year. The conversations will be held in small groups at round tables, led by the Compelling Vision Process Team, and will include all delegates and those nondelegates who have pre-registered to take part. Saturday afternoon\u2019s love feast will be a highlight. Find the business agenda at\u00a0\u00a0www.brethren.org\/ac\/2019\/business<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

— A\u00a0request from Eric Reamer, who is helping coordinate the holding of love feast<\/strong>\u00a0at Annual Conference 2019 in Greensboro, N.C. The love feast will be offered during the final business session on Saturday afternoon, July 6, and all delegates and nondelegates who are present will be invited to participate. \u201cWe are anticipating as many as 1,500 people participating,\u201d Reamer reported in a request for help to obtain home-made loaves of bread for the event. \u201cAt this time we still need many loaves of home-made bread, not communion bread but loaves of bread that will be shared at the tables as part of the communion meal.\u201d He noted that some of the bread needs to be gluten free. He also shared a request for people to volunteer to help set up and serve the love feast. Contact\u00a0ericreamer65@gmail.com<\/a>\u00a0or 570-837-9393.<\/p>\n

—\u00a0\u201cConnect your congregation for Annual Conference Sunday 2019!\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0says an invitation to the Annual Conference Sunday morning webcast on July 7. \u201cEach year, we form one large worshiping congregation on Annual Conference Sunday, as many congregations and individuals tune into the webcast on Sunday morning…. By streaming the service from Annual Conference for the worship in your church, your congregation can worship along with thousands of other Brethren!\u201d Differing time zones and worship start times are not an obstacle to a congregation joining in the live stream worship because the webcast can be rewound and paused and started as needed. Plan for worship start times after 8:30 a.m. (Eastern). Link to the Annual Conference daily webcasts of worship and business sessions and find more information about the special Sunday morning service at\u00a0www.brethren.org\/ac\/2019\/webcasts\/#acsunday<\/a>\u00a0. Worship bulletins are at\u00a0www.brethren.org\/ac\/2019\/webcasts\/#resources<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

—\u00a0For those traveling to Greensboro by air,<\/strong>\u00a0the Annual Conference hotel–the Sheraton at the Koury Convention Center–provides complimentary shuttle transportation to and from the Greensboro airport. The service van has limited seating and there may be wait times if several people arrive and need the shuttle at the same time. Call 336-292-9161 after arriving at the airport and picking up luggage (no advance reservations) for information about the wait time for the next available pickup.<\/p>\n

—\u00a0This year\u2019s Witness to the Host City<\/strong>\u00a0is partnering with BackPack Beginnings in Greensboro. \u201cThe mission of BackPack Beginnings is to provide children in need with nutritious food, comfort items, and basic necessities,\u201d said an announcement. \u201cThe organization was started in 2010 by Parker White, a young mother who wanted to help children in need in her community. From a few boxes of food on her dining room table, this organization has grown to a multi-program organization that now serves over 4,000 children. The organization is staffed 100 percent by volunteers!\u201d The Annual Conference office has asked BackPack Beginnings what their most needed items are, so that Conference attendees can be guided in bringing helpful donations: canned soups, canned Chef Boyardee meals, canned chicken and tuna, grits and oatmeal, healthy snacks, washcloths, deodorant, toothpaste, children\u2019s activity books. Also needed are gently used khaki\/navy pants for boys and girls, sizes 8-14; gently used jeans for boys and girls, sizes 2T, 3T, 4, 5, 6, 6X, and 7\/8; gently used children\u2019s athletic shoes, size 10-13 and 1-5. Find out more at\u00a0www.backpackbeginnings.org<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

—\u00a0The annual Brethren Benefit Trust (BBT) Fitness Challenge 5K run\/walk has been canceled<\/strong>\u00a0this year. The event usually takes place during Annual Conference. Said a BBT announcement: \u201cIn order to be supportive of the schedule for the Annual Conference 2019 compelling vision process, BBT will not hold its annual Fitness Challenge. It was felt that the timing and the proximity of the race to the conference venue would cause a schedule conflict for those who want to be fully engaged in the important business taking place at the Annual Conference. We hope to return to our 5K tradition in Grand Rapids in 2020!\u201d<\/p>\n

—\u00a0In addition to the annual blood drive<\/strong>\u00a0at Annual Conference (this year taking place Friday and Saturday, July 5-6) Brethren Disaster Ministries is sponsoring a \u201cChurch of the Brethren VIRTUAL Blood Drive\u201d on the theme \u201cSleeves Up!\u201d during Annual Conference. \u201cEven if you are not going to the Annual Conference you can join in the Blood Drive efforts by donating blood in your home area. Click on the link below to go to our Virtual Blood Drive campaign page and pledge to give blood from June 21 through July 31,\u201d said an announcement. \u201cFind a blood drive near you at redcrossblood.org and let us know when you donate. Take a photo, upload it to #SleevesUpBrethren and send a copy to\u00a0bdm@brethren.org<\/a>\u00a0.\u201d The photo shown here is of Kathy Melhorn when she participated in the Virtual Blood Drive in 2016. Find out more at\u00a0https:\/\/sleevesup.redcrossblood.org\/campaign\/church-of-the-brethren-virtual-blood-drive-2<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

—\u00a0For details about the 2019 Annual Conference see\u00a0www.brethren.org\/ac<\/a>\u00a0. The news index page\u00a0www.brethren.org\/ac\/2019\/coverage<\/a>\u00a0goes \u201clive\u201d from Greensboro on Monday, July 1. #cobac19<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2019 Annual Conference of the Church of the Brethren takes place next week July 3-7 in Greensboro, N.C. Presiding will be moderator Donita Keister, moderator-elect Paul Mundey, and Conference secretary James Beckwith. Keister preaches for opening worship Wednesday evening. Pre-Conference meetings include the Ministers\u2019 Association annual continuing education event and the Standing Committee meetings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":13809,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1258,1558],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-14142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-annual-conference","tag-annual-conference-2019"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14143,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14142\/revisions\/14143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14142"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=14142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}